Keeping your place

This week at our school is the Scholastic Book Fair and what goes better with new books than a personalized bookmark? This fun clear bookmark is a craft better suited to the older student (3rd grade and up) or younger if well supervised and assisted by a parent.

For this project you will need…

• a patterned paper scrap
• a solid coordinated paper scrap
• a die cutting machine or letter stencil and scissors
• small punches of differing shapes or confetti
• iron on vinyl or clear contact paper
• crop-a-dile and an eyelet
• string in a coordinating color

Using the die cutting machine or your letter stencils create your child’s name in the patterned paper. I chose to back my letters just to make them stand out a little more, but you do not have to. Next punch out lots of little shapes or you can use confetti to add some interest to the bookmark.

Cut a piece of vinyl 8 inches wide by 8 inches long. With the backing still in place, fold the vinyl in half and crease. Peel back the backing only up to the crease that you made. Place the letters in order on the sticky part of the vinyl. Because the vinyl is clear, it does not matter if you choose to work with the letters upside down and backwards or if the letters are right side up at this point. Once the letters are in order, scatter your confetti around the name. Peel the rest of the backing off the vinyl and carefully fold back over the letters to seal the letters inside. Using your fingers, make sure to smooth out any little winkles or air pockets.

Your iron should be on a medium high setting and ready to use at this point. Place a dish towel down on a hard surface and lay your bookmark on top of it. Fold the dish towel over the bookmark so that you have the bookmark covered top and bottom by the towel. Iron over the area of the bookmark using a lot of pressure. This should only take 20 seconds total. Lift up the top of the dish towel. You will probably have to peel the bookmark from the towel. Please do not leave the vinyl to cool on the towel or your bookmark could become part of the towel. =)

Let the bookmark cool. It should only take a minute at most. Trim your bookmark to a size that pleases you making sure your edges are straight.

Using the crop-a-dile create an eyelet hole at the top of the bookmark and fill with an eyelet. Cut your stings and pull through the hole and tie to create the tassel.

Pick up a fabulous book and start reading. When you need a break, you have your newly created bookmark to hold your place.

Enjoy! Happy craftin’

Tara

 

 

Break out that iron!

Why YES, you CAN iron your paper – ha!  I’m finally going to show you how to use iron-on vinyl, yet another lovely product from Therm O Web:  Heat n Bond Iron On Vinyl – it comes in matte or gloss finish .  The possibilities are endless with this product.  Can you imagine a handbag made out of your favorite scrapbook paper?  That’s next on my list once I get to use our sewing machine at home – hee, hee.

Supplies needed:

Paper

Scissors

Iron

Iron on vinyl

*Directions are very clear on the packing of the product but I will show you here too.

**Pre-heat iron to wool (medium heat) setting without steam.

Cut vinyl sheet just a tiny bit larger than the sheet of paper you are working on.  Here I simply cut a sheet of 12×12 paper in half.

Peel vinyl off of protective paper. 

Place vinyl sticky side down directly on paper.  Use your hand to smooth down or other tool like a brayer to get the bubbles out, etc.

Place protective covering (that you just removed) behind paper, on top of vinyl as well as a light cloth for additional protection while ironing.

Iron on cloth for 8 seconds making sure to go over the entire sheet of paper below.  You can easily lift the cloth/protective covering if you don’t feel that you have covered all of it with the iron.  *Make sure that you do not iron any of the protective covering or the vinyl– hence the cloth on top so the vinyl does not get on your iron.

Pull cloth off and let cool for a few seconds.

Snip off edges of any leftover vinyl if needed.

Ta-da, you’re done!  The glare on the photo here is intentional to show you the iron-on vinyl on the paper.

Creative cheers,

Rachel